I am not quite sure if that’s how you say Friday Five in Spanish; however I think It’s Pretty Close.

My wife and I are leaving today for a 7 day cruise to celebrate our anniv.; you can check out the ship here.

If you did not get a chance to meet my family, you can do so by clicking here.

College football officially started last night and really kicks off this weekend; you can check out preseason rankings here.

The Presidential campaign is in full swing; you can Check out Obama’s best TV add here and McCain’s here.

You decide ’08; Sunday is the last day to vote for BigIsTheNewSmall for the 2008 Black Weblog Awards in the category of Best Faith-Based Blog, please take a few moments and vote for BigIsTheNewSmall by clicking here.

Friday Sound Off: Who is going to win the college football National Championship? Who will be the Cinderella team? Who is over-rated? Who is going to win the SuperBowl; will the Giants repeat? The bottum line is you can do all the smack talking that you want to and make any college football or NFL predictions or just rant about whatever! I will kick off the smack talking…

Thanks for reading, we have some great posts lined up for next week… holla atcha when I get back; however make sure you follow me on twitter by clicking here. I’m out… peace!

Every once in awhile I am pretty random over here at BigIsTheNewSmall.com; and yes you have guessed it, today is one of those random days. For those of you who are iced tea drinkers, I want to let you in on a little secret, Sweet Tea is The Place To Be and Unsweet Tea is Horrible. I understand those individuals that need to use some substitute sweetener such as splenda, sweet’n’low or equal for dietary reasons, but just plain Unsweet Tea tastes like dirty water and no I have never tasted dirty water.

My personal favorite is an Arnold Palmer (Half Sweet Tea and Half Lemonade); if have not tried this, it’s a must. I’ll share a few locations that have really good Sweet Tea and here they are in order:

McCalister’s Deli

KFC (Only at 2nd. and Bryant in Edmond, OK… don’t ask me why that location, just trust me its true)

Chick-fil-A

Bonus: Best Arnold Palmer- Smokey Bones BBQ

Do you like Sweat or Unsweet Tea? Who has the best Sweet Tea? (Share the Name and Location) Do you like Arnold Palmer’s? What type of sweetener do you use? If you are a nasty straight-up Unsweet Tea Drinker… please let us know why you think it’s good! Thanks for reading and have a Sweet day!

I would like for everyone (Including RSS Readers) to share One Christian Artist/Group and One Song they sing. It can be a song that you really like, your favorite song, a new song that’s speaking to you, something you heard on the radio, something that you heard at a friends house, a song you liked from church this past weekend, a new tune you just downloaded… or just simply One Artist… One Song that you would like to share.

Age Aint Nothin’ But A Number and Wise Beyond Your Years are two phrases that can be used in the discussion of young leaders. Relative to leadership: Can age just be a number or can a young leader be wise beyond their years?My answer is an unequivocal yes. I have a friend who is a youth pastor and we consistently have this healthy debate on age, wisdom, young leaders… and he is a big proponent of having “Old and Wise” individuals as compared to “Young and Fresh.” I personally think that individuals can definitely be wise beyond their years and therefore “Young and Wise.”

I think that our difference in opinion is relative to our different work experiences; he was poured into and led by what he would refer to as “Old and Wise” and I was mentored by that same type individual; however my mentor would always encourage me with a “Scott you are wise beyond your years and this took me 15 years to figure out.” My mentor’s willingness to see through the age barrier afforded me the opportunity at the age of 25, to be the youngest Warden in the State of Oklahoma and potentially the youngest in the country. We had a team that out-performed all of the other correctional institutions in the State and I had to work harder and be better to gain approval of my colleagues whom were twice my age. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that age can be “A Factor;” however it’s not “The Factor!” There are more young people in leadership positions today than ever before; as organizations like that these young leaders bring a fresh energy, teachability and new perspective. I have worked with, trained, led and I am currently leading some amazingly gifted young leaders with bright futures… and we learn from each other everyday.

Age alone is not a guarantee of success or failure, although age and experience can reduce the risk. I say take all factors into consideration: chemistry, competency, character, raw intellect, drive, heart, life experience, passion, potential, track record, references, leadership experience, leadership potential… and oh yes age! We live in a day and age with the youngest ever Governors, Presidential Candidates, Head Coaches, CEO’s, Senior Pastors, Educators, Executives… so remember Age Aint Nothin’ But a Number and You Can Be Wise Beyond Your Years.

Share Your Thoughts! Relative to leadership, is age just a number? Can Leaders be young and wise?Can older leaders learn from young leaders?Chime in, sound off…!

I thought that I would introduce you to my family via some pictures that Photographer Abi Martin a.ka. ~abi~ had recently taken of us. Not only is ~abi~ an amazing photographer; she is wonderful person. If you are ever in need of any family, wedding or personal photographer, you should check her out… you can visit her blog: www.abeautifulimageblog.com and follow her on Twitter here: @photographerabi

Today is going to be a different take on the Free Is The New Friday; in other words we won’t be doing it every Friday, but rather on a random basis. The winner for this week is Bert Boan; who will be getting hooked up with a Starbucks giftcard from Dusty. Kyle, Dusty and Steve still have some advertising coming; Steve is going to donate his advertising to either Derrick or Jason.

Please Go Vote For BigIsTheNewSmall:

I want to thank those of you who nominated BigIsTheNewSmall.com for the Black Weblog Awards; it’s because of you that we are a finalist in the category of Best Faith-Based Blog. Voting is open until August 31st; however the sooner you vote the better. Encourage your friends, blog readers and others to vote for BigIsTheNewSmall; you can vote by clicking here. We are a longshot, but we will see if we can win; click here to vote. Thanks In Advance!

LinkLuv (If you have added BigIsTheNewSmall.com to your blogroll let me know and I’ll show you some LinkLuv)

My Life, My Family: (Run-on Sentence)

Wesley is playing tackle football and wants to also play flag, Jayden is playing flag, my wife and I fly out next Friday for our cruise (yes), the n-dub team is really special, today is my day off, I have some good books I’m reading, I have a book I need to write, we took dinner to a couple in our lifegroup last night that just had a baby, I’m ready for college football, this season of life is busy but really good… God Is Good!

Questions:

Who will Obama and McCain pick for VP Candidates?

Any pre-season college football choices, favorite college football team, smack talking…?

Anything you want to share, debate, sound-off about… what’s up in your world?

The Scripture: Blessed are those that have not seen and yet believed. John 20:29

The Story: Scripture clearly shows that Jesus would have been happier if the scribes and the Pharisees had spent a lot less time in the temple, collecting sacrifices and honoring each other with awards, and a lot more time in the field, being “field representatives” delivering the results that compassion alone can bring.

“Why do you call me Lord [to my face] and yet do not do the things I say?” he asked, voicing anger and frustration at those who should have been his top producers. They were giving him plenty of face time but not the results he wanted.

The Thoughts: Just think abut the Apostle Paul who didn’t get any face time with Jesus; however he more then made it up with his zeal for spreading the Gospel. Paul was the “field representative” who never got to shake the Boss’s hand personally.

Many times in the “Church World” it can be more important for people people to be known by the pastor, be friends with church leadership, be on some committee and basically talk a good Jesus game [face time]; then it is to “Go” out into all the world and produce results. SideNote-[I think micro-managers value face time more then results, otherwise they would let their people be free to go out and produce results!]

The disciples whose mother requested that they be granted the right to sit on either side of Jesus in heaven, were not nearly as prolific or remembered for their work as Paul; a “field representative,” who never actually got to meet the Boss. Jesus valued results over face time!

The Questions:

Do you value face time over results?

As Christ Followers how can we do a better job of being about results, then being about face time? Overall Thoughts?

If you could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same it would look like the following:

57 Asians

21 Europeans

14 from the Western Hemisphere, both North and South

8 Africans

52 would be female; 48 would be male

70 would be non-white; 30 would be white

70 would be non-Christian; 30 would be Christian

89 would be heterosexual; 11 would be homosexual

6 people would possess 59% of the world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the U.S.

80 would live in substandard housing

70 would be unable to read

50 would suffer from malnutrition

1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth

1 (yes only 1) would have a college education

1 would own a computer (an he/she would be blogging LOL)

This compressed look at the world gives some perspective of the need for acceptance, understanding, education and what we talked about yesterday; sharing your faith and inviting a friend.

The Story: If we look at the myriad of diversity in the world we can clearly see that God values diversity. Jesus certainly expressed diversity in his choice of staff: tax collector, fisherman, physician, former prosecuting attorney, women… He valued an array of personalities, backgrounds and experiences around him in order to advance his work. The story of Jacob and the “minority” sheep is another great illustration.

The Thoughts: The bottom line is most organizations and teams do not like to talk about diversity. Teams like to talk as though everyone has the same backgrounds, experiences and as though someone will be offended by a diversity discussion. It’s even more taboo to acknowledge the realization that diversity in the church and organizational teams should exist. It’s not like Jesus just said he took a “group of people” to be on his team; he articulated who they were and there uniqueness to give us a clear perspective of how he rolled. I personally think we need to move from tolerating diversity to embracing diversity.

Fortune magazine states that “diverse groups make better decisions. If everyone in the room is the same, you’ll have fewer arguments and worse answers. Diversity is a distinct competitive advantage.”

The Questions:

Is diversity taboo to talk about in your team or organization? How diverse is your team, your church…?

Any thoughts on diversity overall; or is it too taboo to talk about?

“We must face the fact that in America, the church is still the most segregated major institution in America.” Martin Luther King Jr.

The Scripture: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Matthew 28:19

The Story: After nearly every transaction Jesus had with a “customer,” they would go and tell everyone what they had seen, heard and experienced. The woman at the well ran to go to tell everyone, the blind man whose eye had been restored shouted the news to the entire village, Andrew went and brought others to Jesus….

The Thoughts: If we all were truly excited about the LIFE that we have through Christ; then we would be sharing, telling and selling the Good News. Just think of all of the people who you personally know or meet daily who don’t know Christ. If your life has been changed and you are excited about what God’s doing at your church, tell someone, invite a friend, bring an enemy… There is absolutely no reason why churches, ministries and God’s family isn’t growing other than laziness and selfishness of Christ Followers.

I am going to share an astonishing statistic with you: Do you know how long it would take a message to reach every one of the 6 billion people on the planet, if the only “recruiting” method was tell two people, and ask those two people to tell two more.” Go ahead guess: 5 yrs, 3 yrs, 1 yr, 6 months… The correct answer is 33 days; according to Martin Rutte, coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work! That’s why I myself and encourage other people to: invite a friend, tell someone, tell two people…

“Go tell everyone what you have seen and heard,” he said- Jesus turned everyone into recruiters.

The Questions:

Does the lack of an invite someone mentality boil down to Laziness and Selfishness?

How long did you think it would take to get a message to all 6 billion people? Overall Thoughts!

I was in Barnes and Noble the other night to pick up a book and ran across this neat little book; the book is titled “Teach Your Team to Fish” by Laurie Beth Jones. I started reading it late one evening and I was half-way through it, before I knew it (That rhymed!) This book has dozens of stories of, illustrating how Jesus- the greatest leader and teacher of all time, managed his team of disciples and other followers. I definitely recommend this book for anyone; it has some great reminders.

HE TURNED WORK INTO CAUSE:

The Scripture: I must work the works of him that sent me. John 9:4

The Story: As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers Peter and Andrew casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen; and Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of men.’ Jesus then put his arm around them and began to show them the Big Picture one day at a time.

The Thoughts: Famous basketball coach Pat Riley says, “You don’t have to yell at someone who wants the same thing that you do.” Team-builders inspire people to look up, just as Jesus did with Peter and Andrew; as well as with his other disciples and followers. By revealing the Bigger Picture, he turned work into cause.

It’s important as a leader to let our teams at all levels understand and be a key part of the “Big Picture” as much as you possibly can… A key statement in this book is: “Jesus put his arm around them and began to show them the Big Picture, one day at a time.” As leaders, we have to point to the mountain, put our arm around our people (care about them), charge the mountain and over time we will be at the top of the mountain.

The Questions:

How important is it to put your arm around them and show them the Big Picture one day at a time?

Does your team/organization at all levels understand the “Big Picture?” Any other thoughts?